Car charged: Is it best to buy or sell your current vehicle?

When it comes to deciding whether to sell your car or try to keep it for a few more years, you have plenty of circumstances and questions to consider.
Can you afford a car payment?
Will a new car also cost you more from an insurance standpoint?
Are you spending too much on repairs?
Is your car in such bad shape that you're putting yourself in danger?

Those aforementioned inquiries are just a few that will scroll across your mind when you're in the midst of posting that online ad to sell your car and truly debating back and forth if buying a new or, at the very least, newer car is your best bet.
Easily the best barometer to gauge whether you are going to say so long to your clunker and start spending cash on a car payment is paying close attention to the relationship you've had with your car over the last few years.
If you've already started scouting a new vehicle and figure that your car payment is going to be around $300 per month, you've got another $3,600 a year you've got to account for as part of your yearly income.
That number might not be quite as staggering as your mounting and equally costly repair bills for what you're currently driving around at the moment. For the most part, however, your car isn't going to cost you nearly $4,000 every year, so most of the time you opt to keep your vehicle and stave off having yet another bill going out in the mail every month for as long as possible.
That is evident in recent reports that the average consumer keeps their vehicle these days for more than a decade, suggesting that trading in cars isn't quite the impulse it once was. That said, the car industry is doing well when it comes to brand new vehicles, but there's no doubt that customers aren't lining up at the dealership.
One aspect in favor of buying a new car definitely would be the idea of having a warranty to cover the costly repairs. Typically, purchasing a car and finally giving up on your current one is a process that consists of one frustration and angst of not knowing if or when you car is going to stall this time for the last time.
Just as long as that anger doesn't transform into an impulsive buy that you simply can't afford.

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